Remotely controlled surgical instruments (also referred to as teleoperated surgical instruments) are often used in minimally invasive medical procedures. A surgical instrument may include joints to position the surgical instrument in a desired location. Because the range of motion of an individual joint can be limited, multiple joints having the same or similar motion may be necessary to provide a desired range of motion that exceeds the range of motion for an individual joint. However, use of multiple joints requires additional components to control and support the additional joints, which can increase the complexity in operation, overall size, and difficulty of manufacturing the instrument.